From where I stand…

Category Archives: Thursday Doors

Thursday Doors is a weekly feature allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favourite door photos from around the world.

“Beverly House Doors” – Royal Ontario Museum

Doors in a museum? Imagine my surprise.

On a visit to the Royal Ontario Museum a few months back, I entered a section of the museum tucked away from most of the traffic and discovered an entire section dedicated to the history of Canada. Why was I not previously aware of this?

Among this collection, I was surprised to see several historic doors on display. This was quite a surprise, that someone cared enough about doors to preserve them.

The above door , circa 1822, belonged to Beverly House, the residence of Sir John Beverley Robinson (1791 -1863), Chief Justice of Upper Canada, was one of the most impressive residences in early Toronto. It was located at the northeast corner of John and Richmond Streets. Robinson, the son of a Loyalist from Virginia, was one of the most powerful men in Ontario in his time. The house was demolished around 1913.

The door was a gift to the museum from the Ursuline Religious of the Chatham Union in Toronto.

Thank goodness someone had the foresight to preserve this door for generations to enjoy.

Thursday Doors is a weekly feature allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favourite door photos from around the world.

“Abandoned”

This image is a far departure from my usual images of stately, ornate doors, yet they are still doors and I found them quite intriguing.

As I was out hiking earlier this year, I came across an abandoned maple sap evaporator, sitting in the middle of a mature forest. It seemed so out-of-place that I had to make a photo of it to show to friends and thought Thursday Doors might be another place to share it.

For those unfamiliar with maple syrup production, the ‘sap’, which is a sweet, watery liquid produced by Sugar Maple trees, is gathered, either in buckets attached to the trees or, for more modern facilities, via a ‘pipeline’ of plastic hoses, and boiled down in an ‘evaporator’, like this one (but not full of holes). A large fire is kept going under the evaporator to boil off most of the water in the maple sap. The remaining syrup, is then further boiled in a smaller finishing tank. At the end of the process, the maple syrup, is about 1/40th the volume of the original sap. So, it takes a lot of sap to produce even a small amount of syrup. This boiling process occurs late February to early March, just as days begin to warm and the sap rises into the tree, which requires cold nights and days above freezing. The cycle usually runs for just over a week.

So, I look at this image and can imagine someone, in days gone by, harvesting the sap and boiling it here in the forest. The tank would likely have been covered or enclosed in a large ‘sugar shack’ to protect the producer from the elements and keep foreign matter from surrounding trees from falling into the evaporator.

Thursday Doors is a weekly feature allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favourite door photos from around the world.

“Royal Ontario Museum – Events Entrance”

Today, A return to the east side, and the former main entrance of the Royal Ontario, or ROM, as it is known locally. This image was made at the same time as my previous ROM door image back in March. These doors, are a closer view of the right hand door of the three sets of doors that make up this entrance. This image shows off a bit more of the beautiful carving above the door. On further inspection, which was not possible from the wider image, the iron florets and handles are also very interesting and it would appear that the right handle door handle was broken and repaired at one time.

As the sign says, the doors are used for, or were at one time used for special events, though I can’t recall ever seeing anyone use them.

Thursday Doors is a weekly feature allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favourite door photos from around the world.

“St. Mary’s Anglican Church” – Richmond Hill

Today’s ‘doors’ post is multipurpose. First of all, this church has a beautiful original door, circa 1874. I’ve shared the door, close up, previously, but wanted to share it again in a different season, when the building is not obscured by trees. Secondly, in small towns around Ontario, there is an event called “Doors Open Ontario“. It’s an opportunity for the public to go inside many buildings, be they historical, specialized, or just interesting, as see what’s behind the doors they pass daily. The Doors Open event for the town of Richmond Hill is this Saturday, May 13th, and I made the image for the church to use for the event as well as their service bulletins.

The final reason, for those in the Richmond Hill area, is that I have been asked to show some of my photography, alongside other artists who attend this church. So, it’s a good chance to see behind the doors, meet new people, and purchase some art.

Thursday Doors is a weekly feature allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favourite door photos from around the world.

“Dundas Street West” – Toronto

These doors are conveniently located across from Toronto’s Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO). I see them every time I visit the gallery and am always meaning to snap a shot. So, this past weekend, after seeing a wonderful Georgia O’Keeffe exhibit, I did just that.

There are a number of wonderful old houses on this block of Dundas Street West, most have become boutiques or galleries, catering to the AGO patrons, but several have remained as residences.

I do enjoy observing ‘paired’ doors, as each tenant seems to have a slightly different slant on what the entranceway to their home should look like. These to are quite similar, with a few subtle differences.

Thursday Doors is a weekly feature allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favourite door photos from around the world.

“Gloria’s – San Jose del Cabo”

I thought it would be a good day to revisit one of my Mexico photos today. You see, I had the full intention to build a large collection of Mexican doors from this trip. What I learned was, never try to do it before 9:00am, as they are all locked up.

In this case, and in many others, not just the doors are locked with wrought iron gates, but so are the windows. This practice seemed to be quite common in San Jose del Cabo, a moderate sized town at the south end of Mexico’s Baja peninsula. The concept of locked doors has also been replaced by a preference for chains and padlocks, which was evident even on the modern doors of some of teh local banks.

Sadly, I was not able to return on this visit to get a shot of the door by itself, it looks like a beauty, so will have to plan a return trip 🙂

Thursday Doors is a weekly feature allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favourite door photos from around the world.

“Eckhardt House” – Unionville, Ontario

For today’s submission, I offer a return to the village of Unionville, in southern Ontario. As I have stated before, my biggest disappointment with historical buildings is when the original doors are removed in favour of modern pressed steel doors. Though practical, I feel they diminish teh beauty of the building. So, when I find an original door, I am extremely pleased.

This particular house is one of the few houses in Unionville that I have found with original doors. As has become my custom of late, I’m sharing the Streetview link to the larger view.

As with last week’s image, I did not have my Nikon with me, and relied on my handy iPhone, which does not disappoint.